Many mobile devices such as cell phones and tablet computers include an interface ports such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port for connecting to USB peripheral devices that function cooperatively with the USB Host mobile device. Mobile devices as described herein may include smartphones, tablet computers and other portable computing and communicating devices that are configured for connection to USB peripheral devices, for example. USB driver software for each peripheral device is conventionally installed in the mobile device. The USB driver software configures the mobile device to interact with the corresponding USB peripheral device.
Multiple USB peripheral devices can be connected to a single Universal Serial Bus port of a mobile device via USB hub device installed between the peripheral devices and the mobile device USB port. The USB hub device may have multiple USB ports for connecting to peripheral devices and is configured to direct USB communications between the peripheral devices and the mobile device USB port.
As new peripheral devices and new mobile devices become available, it is often desirable to reconfigure a mobile device for cooperating with different USB peripheral devices, or to configure a different mobile device for cooperating with previously used USB peripheral devices. The reconfiguring of USB peripheral devices or replacement of the mobile device can involve substantial development work in order to update the mobile device operating system or to develop and/or install new or updated USB driver software in the mobile device. This is particularly problematic and may involve substantial integration costs in large corporations or government entities, where it is common to upgrade or replace a large number of mobile device systems every few years.